Pearl Harbor
The weather over the northern Sierra on Dec. 7, 1941, was cold, but pleasant. It was Sunday and there were about a dozen skiers from Reno taking advantage of an early season snow pack on the sand dunes above the Mount Rose meadows, between Incline Village and Reno.

A prominent Reno skier, Warren Hart, had rigged a rope tow powered by a Ford engine to pull skiers uphill. At the bottom, the rope tow went so fast it was hard for skiers to get started up the tow. The gloves-on-rope friction often wore out a pair of gloves by lunchtime. At the top, skiers had to let go of the rope 20 or 25 feet from the motor and then let their momentum propel them the rest of the way to the ridge.

At the end of the day, a few of the skiers stopped at the lodge at Galena Creek for refreshments and to boast about who had skied best. Keston Ramsey, developer of the Sky Tavern Resort, was there that December 7th, as was Bill Berry, a noted journalist and Sierra ski historian. There were several 18-year-old, UNR freshmen there, too, including Chelton Leonard, a future coach of the University of Nevada ski team and Joe "Barnes" Berry, son of Bill. As the sun went down, they all heard the news that the Japanese had bombed an American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

The United States quickly declared war on Japan and began mobilizing troops. Longtime friends, Chelton Leonard and Barnes Berry, were among the Reno skiers who volunteered for assignment as mountain soldiers. At the time, the U.S. Army was training winter combat soldiers in the 87th Mountain Regiment located at Fort Lewis, north of Mount Rainier in Washington State.

Camp Hale
Berry and Leonard were inducted into the army. They were assigned to a new military facility called Camp Hale, located near Aspen, Colorado. At Camp Hale, soldiers were trained to fight in cold weather conditions and rugged alpine terrain. The idea for this specialized regiment was inspired by the Finnish army's success against invading Russians. The Finns used skilled mountain troops. Minot Dole, a Connecticut insurance broker and ski enthusiast who had organized the National Ski Patrol System, had convinced the U.S. War Department that it desperately needed a unit of mountain soldiers.

The War Department asked Dole to utilize the National Ski Patrol System to recruit skiers and mountain climbers. Anyone wanting to join needed three letters testifying to their skiing ability and outdoorsmanship. Recruiters encouraged all outdoor-oriented men to volunteer for mountain-soldier training.

The Army wanted 2,500 men; Dole's system provided more than 3,500. Among those who joined were two former Truckee residents, the late Karl Kielhofer and Pete Vanni.

Accomplished skiers like Leonard and Berry ended up at 9,200' Camp Hale. Built specifically for its purpose, Camp Hale was in a large flat valley surrounded by steep mountain slopes. It was perfect for skiing, rock climbing, and learning cold-weather survival skills. The troops learned to breath and climb to 14,000' using skis and snowshoes, while carrying 90-pound rucksacks and heavy weapons.

The soldiers learned the technical skills necessary to climb cliffs and had to struggle to handle the newly invented, "Weasel"--an over-snow track vehicle--in rough terrain. They learned to march more than 20 miles a day, yet there was always a lot of singing as they went.

Winter weather in the Rockies can be brutal, and the men were often cold, wet, and hungry. At the end of one period of tactical training in Feb. 1944, 30 percent of the participants were recovering in the infirmary from frostbite or exhaustion.

The mountain troops developed a special camaraderie, regardless of rank or rating. Former ski instructors and college racers often found themselves teaching officers. Some of the most famous skiers and mountain men from America, and even some from Europe, trained at Camp Hale. Roy Mikkelsen, a national ski jumping champion with the Auburn Ski Club, was a second lieutenant at Camp Hale in 1943. Europeans like Austrians Hannes Schneider's son, Herbie, (Schneider Sr. is considered by many the Father of Modern Skiing) and Bill Klein (a founder of Sugar Bowl Ski Resort) were at Hale.

The 10th Goes to War
The soldiers trained and trained, but weren't committed to combat until January 1945, when the newly named, 10th Mountain Division, was ordered to Italy for a dangerous assault. It was against heavily fortified, German-held positions high in the Apennine Mountains. The division faced intense fire from the German troops on the Riva Ridge section of Mount Belvedere, situated on top of a steep rock escarpment considered impossible to climb and surrounded by minefields. Other army divisions had attempted to scale the 1,500-foot vertical assent, but all had failed.

The men of the 10th Mountain Division scaled the ridge at night and took the Germans by surprise. The battle was horrific, with many mountain infantrymen killed, wounded, or missing after the first day.

Combat continued as the mountain troops broke through the German line and spearheaded the drive across the Po River Valley. With skis, ropes, and mules, the 10th was successful in cutting off the German Army's main escape route by prevailing in the famous battles of Riva Ridge, Mount Belvedere, and Mont Gorgolesco. Indicative of the fierce fighting, nearly 1,000 men of the 10th Mountain Division were killed and 4,100 wounded in the campaign. The men's courage was honored as the 10th became one of the most highly decorated divisions in U.S. history.

Post War
After the war, ex-soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division fired up America's modern ski industry. They published ski magazines, opened ski schools, and established ski areas, including Vail, Aspen, Sugarbush, Whiteface Mountain, and others. At least 62 ski resorts have been founded, managed, or staffed by head, ski instructors that were 10th Mountain Division veterans.

Officer Joe Berry went on to fight in Korea and a military career commanding the Army Rifle Team. Chelton Leonard, like other veterans from the 10th, found a career in the ski industry. He coached the University of Nevada ski team for ten years and was appointed assistant sports technical director for the 1960 Winter Olympics at Palisades Tahoe. Leonard later became the executive director of the National Ski Association. Perhaps his proudest accomplishment was when he became secretary general for the International Federation of Mountain Soldiers (IFMS), an organization dedicated to world peace. He is still very active in IFMS.

Chelton Leonard likes to say that the mountains are a great equalizer, and that soldiers from various countries, enemies or allies, possess a love of mountains, skiing, and snow that transcends the bitterness of war; they share a common thread that brings them together as friends.

In 1997, Highway 89 between Tahoe City and Truckee was renamed "The 10th Mountain Division Highway" in a salute to the Winter Warriors. Two commemorative signs are posted on each end of the highway.